Someone came to visit. Someone who is Blessed with monetary riches. Someone who decided to show our family their affection by showering us with expensive electronic gadgets. That was a very nice gesture but when I started to argue with my sister about who gets the 8 gigabyte iPod and who gets the “flip” camcorder, I knew something was very wrong. Five minutes earlier, neither of those devices was in our possession, yet once we acquired them, we just “could not live without” them.

I’m not proud of my generation. I live in a time where any electronic devise over two years old is considered “ancient” or “obsolete.” Not only do new models replace old ones with more frequency than occur the Olympics, but consumers also feel “the need” to buy them. Without the latest in technology, people would have “nothing” to enable their glitzy lives.

A family road trip is no longer a chance to spend time bonding. Now, each kid has to bring their own iPod to listen to, their own Game Boy (is that the latest toy?) to play on, and their own digital camera to record the holiday. Their parents, too, are not free of technology. The car they drive is controlled by GPS and the dashboard has more options than a space shuttle. Do people even bother with rockets anymore? Or have manufacturers made a nano version which anyone can now tote around in their pockets, while downloading the latest movies, games, and songs.

Once the family arrives at their destination, each member must whip out their cell phone (the latest one, of course, bought only ten months after the previous one). The previous model had only four pixels on the camera and three gigabytes memory, while the new one has five pixels and four gigabytes, respectively. These phones are not merely communication devices, but rather are calendars, email readers, game counsels, and restaurant finders. The kitchen sink version didn’t come in the right colors to match the Prada and Gucci outfits, so the family had to make do without.

The outings the family makes are “fashionable” ones, punctuated with many shopping sprees to buy things that they don?t need. Even though the same exact stores with the same exact merchandise are available back home, everything is more exotic when you pay $500 a night for board.

Gone is the world where a family trip meant “family,” and not “trip.” Old World values have been replaced with simpler, shinier, New World “know-how.”

As such, I no longer stare in shock when I see the Versace store by a homely restaurant in the Old City, sitting there as though it actually is appropriate on that venerated soil.

Becca

Posted by Channie & Becca Greenberg

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